My new house in the US isn’t huge, it’s a fairly typical family home but over the past week I have felt myself walking around the house saying time and again ‘I love this house’. Why? Perhaps in part because none of my stuff has arrived yet so there is no clutter and some of the rooms are empty, it looks so clean and minimalistic which is very soothing. However, there is more to it than that, so much thought goes into the practicalities of a house here. Here are my favourites:-

Coffee Machines

The last few years have been a blur of late nights (unfortunately not partying) and muddling through days in a coffee fuelled haze. Since my pregnancy with my 3rd daughter I have become a big coffee fan. Coffee is big here in Starbucks land. Not all households have kettles but you can be sure they will have a coffee maker. The coffee makers are mess free as the coffee is contained in filter papers so no more trying to dispose of coffee grounds. Even better the coffee stays on a heated plate so you always have a hot coffee. No more microwaved coffee for me then, simple but genius.

2. Storage

cupboards,cupboards and more cupboards

There are fitted cupboards in every room of this house. By the front door is a coat and shoe cupboard, each bedroom has fitted double wardrobes and the large bedrooms have 2, there is a linen cupboard in the utility room, a double cupboard outside our bedroom, a huge cupboard outside our kids bedroom plus another double wardrobe in the adjoining room attached. When all our stuff arrives there should be loads of space to put the kids toys and general ‘stuff’ that I could never find a place for in the old house. Here’s to a new me with a tidy and organised house.

3. Bathrooms

My 8 year old is delighted to have her own en suite (this also doubles up as a utility room with a huge top loading washing machine and tumble dryer) my youngest 2 have their own bathroom and we have an en suite. Multiple bathrooms are common here – it would be considered odd to have only 2. Double sinks are in all the master bathrooms so no more fighting over sink space (the kids not me) and best of all are the multiple drawers and cupboards underneath the sinks. No more piles of toiletries or bath toys on view, they will all fit inside the cupboards beneath the sinks. My 3 year old removed all the toothbrushes, toothpaste etc. from her sinks a few days ago and put them in a drawer. It looks so tidy – I like what she is becoming (if we forget that she hid the soap). As an added bonus the bath in the children’s bathroom comes with a lever instead of a plug so there will be no more arguments about accidentally pulling the plug out.

The other thing I love about the bathrooms is that they have power sockets in them so my hairdryer and straighteners can live in the bathroom and the bedroom can be purely for relaxation.

4. Shower Curtains with Magnetic Bottoms

Okay, this one may be a little sad, but I love that our shower curtains have magnets in the corner that stick to the bath so you don’t have to worry about them flapping out of place and the bathroom floor getting soaked.

5. Huge Fridges

American fridges are popular in the UK but the door space is the biggest difference here. The gallon cartons of milk fit comfortably into the door space, I could easily fit 4 of them in. I have fresh produce and meat drawers leaving the rest of the space for important stuff like beer.

The recycling bins are huge wheelie bins here to cater for the giant cartons that go for recycling.

6. Fly Screens

We don’t need to worry about mosquitoes in the UK but in a house backing onto woodland we did have midges, daddy long legs and maybugs not to mention houseflies. Here every door and window has a fly screen so you can have the benefit of keeping the door open without the annoyance of flies. They wouldn’t have been very useful in the UK this Summer but they would have been great in the past.